Leviticus 14:7

seven times As in Leviticus 14:27; Leviticus 14:51and so in Leviticus 4:6; Leviticus 4:17; Leviticus 8:11; Leviticus 16:14; Leviticus 16:19; Numbers 19:4. Cp. 2 Kings 5:10 and Art. Numberin HDB. iii. specially p. 565.

let go the living bird The similarity between the two birds and the two goats brought on the Day of Atonement has been noted by Jewish and Christian commentators; it is necessary to point out the differences. On that Day the high priest officiated; the slain goat was a Sin-Offering, and on the goat that was sent away all the sins of the children of Israel were solemnly laid. The whole service was at the sanctuary, its inner shrine was entered on that day only; and there was no physical contact between the two goats. The two birds brought for the cleansing of the leper were respectively killed and set free outside the camp by an ordinary priest; the blood of the slain bird was not brought near the altar nor treated sacrificially, but applied to the living bird which was let go. The ritual is not markedly Hebraic, but antique in character, and similar to that followed by tribes whose ideas about the removal of impurity are in the most elementary stage. Some parts of it were probably in use among Semites before the age of Moses, as an inheritance from a distant past. The time when these rites were adopted into Israel's cultus cannot be fixed with certainty; when they became part of that system which requires holiness from the worshippers of a holy God, their significance was spiritualized, and the superstitious beliefs of an earlier age were eliminated, though not entirely forgotten.

We find among primitive peoples that sicknesses are in many cases transferred to a bird or beast which thus becomes a kind of scapegoat (Frazer, G. B.2 iii. 15 f., 101 f.) or are sent away in boats (ib.97 f. Cp. Rob.-Sm. Rel. Sem.422, Berth. ad loc.).

The Heb. word for -cedar" includes, besides the Lebanon variety, juniper and some sorts of pine; the Gk. κέδρος has a correspondingly broad significance. The -hyssop" is supposed to be a kind of marjoram; the plant now known as hyssop does not grow in Egypt or Syria. For further details see Dillm. in loc. and Arts. Juniper, Cedar, in HDB. and Enc. Bib.

The cedar is regarded as a sacred tree. Instances of its use are given in Frazer, G. B.3 49 f., where it is described as Juniperus excelsa.